Through the Shadow of the Evening Sun
by heavendenied
Summary: A time of endings, beginnings and awakenings CalebTyler Slash
1. Twilight

It had begun at twilight, the hazy grey light breaking the horizon through the window of the dark room.

Tyler had crawled over Reid's softly snoring body, almost stumbling to the floor in the dim room to keep from jarring him awake with sharp knees or elbows in sensitive places. The bed they'd shared as kids during the nights they'd slept over at Caleb's had shrunk badly over the years and now barely held the both of them.

He'd crept out of the room as quietly as possible, needing a glass of water more than he needed his next breath of air.

Not as hung over as he'd expected to be after the belated birthday-slash-'congratulations on still being alive and saving our asses' party they'd held last night downstairs for Caleb, though the older boy had rolled his eyes at the lot of them. Then hid away in the corner with Sarah all night while the rest of them got wasted.

No one had been around downstairs and he'd vaguely remembered Pogue kicking everyone out around two in the morning after making sure they all had sobered up enough to drive. Always the responsible one, when it all came down to it.

The water had done him worlds of good and he'd padded silently back up the old, ornate staircase, the house almost as familiar to him in the dark as his own. Pausing as he'd gotten close to Caleb's bedroom door and frowning at the muffled sounds coming from inside.

Sarah had left hours earlier with Kate or it would never have crossed his mind to ease open the cracked door, biting his lip as he hesitantly stuck his head in the room. His eyes had taken a few moments to get used to the darkness, blinking in the silver glow that illuminated the bed where Caleb lay shifting restlessly in the sheets, his face a mask of pain. Strangled groaning sounds coming from his throat as he fought whatever was in his dreams.

Tyler had crossed over to the bed, a hand lightly gripping one of the older boy's muscled shoulders as he shook him gently, worried about the silvery tracks of tears that slid from Caleb's lashes to his temples. He had been jerked onto the bed, flipped under that big, hard body before he had a chance to gasp, realize what was happening.

Caleb's mouth hot, desperate over his, tasting of fear, need. Tears.

He'd struggled instinctively, trying to squirm out from under the older boy, but strong hands had pinned his wrists, the mouth over his becoming harsher, rougher, until he'd stopped fighting. Eyes huge, head spinning as he panted under him.

Then Caleb's lips had gentled over his, the desperation turning gentle, coaxing, until Tyler had given in with a gasp. Lips parting, allowing the other boy's tongue to slide along his own and gasping as it sent sparks of unexpected pleasure through his body.

Forgetting everything but the warm rush of pleasure, the feel of that soft, hot mouth over his own, he'd kissed him back, eagerly. Their tongues slick and warm as they slid along each other's, lips soft, the slight stubble on Caleb's face just heightening the sensations skittering through Tyler.

The slide of sharp teeth, a soft bite to his bottom lip making him whimper.

The world had frozen, along with their bodies, as the soft sound echoed in the quiet room. Caleb's head had come up sharply, dark eyes aware, finally, searching his own in something akin to horror. Sliding from Tyler's panting face and wide eyes to the hands gripping his slender wrists, pinning them to the bed.

The older boy had let him go as if he had scalded him, sliding off the bed and backing up, eyes almost wild.

Tyler had swallowed, fingers going to his swollen lips before scrabbling off of the bed, taking a step towards the older boy but stopping dead as Caleb backed up. "Fuck, Ty. I'm sorry, fuck," he whispered, but Tyler had shaken his head hard.

Swallowed again before he'd hushed the older boy, taking another step towards him and resting a hand lightly on Caleb's shoulder, feeling the skin twitch, muscles jump under his palm. "It's okay, man. You were dreaming."

He'd smiled, though his whole world had suddenly gotten twisted upside down, inside out. Backed up, heading for the door as he'd glanced back at Caleb one last time, not daring to look back towards the bed. "Just get some sleep. Forget about it, its nothing."

If only they'd been able to.

Things had gotten extremely complicated after that night but as much as his heart is pounding sickeningly in his throat now, he can't really say that he wants to take it all back.

Tyler shifts in the driver's seat, glancing again at the lit up numbers telling him it was almost seven in the morning. He'd gotten a message from Caleb last night asking him to meet him here, in what he'd come to think of as 'their spot' in the back of his mind, and though he'd have preferred to pretend he had never gotten the text, he could never tell Caleb no.

Things between them had been tense the last few weeks. Hell, months. Tenser than usual, at least.

College is starting in three weeks and he, Caleb and Sarah are all heading off to Harvard. With things the way they currently were, that was more than awkward.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the older boy wants to talk about, though Tyler is a little surprised he is getting the speech at all.

It wasn't like they'd ever been together, Caleb hadn't ever stopped seeing Sarah. Never stopped trying to deny everything that they did with each other, never stopped beating himself up afterwards.

They were just.. some fucked up version of reluctant, addicted fuck buddies or something.

Reid'd know the right term, he muses darkly, but the blonde isn't really speaking to him at the moment. Just another fucked up thing in his fucked up life.

He swallows roughly as he stares out the window at the dew glittering along the ground, the fog rolling in. Eyes distant as he watches the thin sliver of light starting to slide over the horizon just as the headlights of Caleb's car break through the darkness behind him.

Twilight.

It is only fitting, he thinks as he slowly opens the door and slides out, since this had all started when night was breaking slowly into day, that moment of time between dark and light, the past and the future. When the world was caught in that time when things were still grey, hazy and unsure, but full of possibilities.

Of course it would end there, too.


	2. Burn

He _tries_ to forget.

Forget the feel of Caleb's mouth over his own, forget the taste of him.

But every time he licks over his lips, he imagines he can taste him there, feel the scrape of sharp teeth and the slick slide of his tongue. Every time he sees Caleb, they burn.

Tries to forget the feel of those hands pressing him down, gripping tight as they pinned him to the bed, but the dark bruises like bracelets around the pale skin of his wrists hadn't faded for days, making it hard to pretend it hadn't happened. Even a week after that night, he found himself running his thumbs over where their path used to be. Every glance Caleb's way making them ache.

He could have gotten rid of them, should have, since it had been a pain in the ass to hide them.

But he hadn't and he doesn't know why.

He doesn't understand this preoccupation he's having over that night. It's not like he'd never been kissed, never felt desire or need, that ache in his body at the feel of someone else's touch.

Keeps thinking that maybe it's just the shock of it, the unexpectedness of what had happened, that's making it so hard to just put it out of his mind. Maybe it's the fact it was one of his brothers and his body was confused because of the bond they shared that was making this into more than it really was.

But out of the four of them, he and Caleb are the ones who least have a bond. Sure, he cares about him but he hardly _likes_ him. Caleb is arrogant and domineering, always so sure he knows best for everyone around him.

And Tyler isn't stupid, he knows what the other boy sees him as, when he thinks of him at all. The youngest, the weakest, the follower. Always backing up Reid no matter what. The one most easily controlled.

Most often, he feels invisible to the older boy, as if he isn't quite important enough to see.

And yet..

Tyler shivers, hunching his shoulders slightly as he tries to focus on the board and the notes he is supposed to be writing. Fails. Unable to keep from glancing up and over, to where the two older boys sat.

Catching those dark eyes before Caleb glances away again, a small frown between his brows. Tyler frowns too, dropping his eyes back to his notes though the jumble of letters make no sense to him at all.

And yet… he can't break the feeling that Caleb is, for maybe the first time, trying to _see_ him.

Leaving him wondering if maybe he isn't the only one who can't forget, the only one who wakes up hard and aching, reaching for something that just isn't there, is never there. The only one who still has the taste of something he shouldn't want forever stuck in his mind.

Glances up again, unable to stop himself, and is caught in the older boy's eyes for a long, lingering moment.

Tip of his tongue sliding along his lips as they burn.


	3. Silence

For a brief, dizzying moment, Caleb is caught in those clouded and confused blue eyes, eyes he'd seen countless times since practically birth but had never really looked _into_. He'd never had to, one look at the younger boy's face had always been enough to show whether he'd been lying or not.

Not that Tyler ever tried lying to _him_ but it was also a pretty good indicator of when Reid was, too.

And why else would he stare into a face that was as familiar to him as his own?

But now, now he can't seem to look away from the other boy's eyes, caught up in the clear, soft blue, the thoughts and emotions he can almost sense there but not quite grasp. Sees them widen under his scrutiny, pale skin flushing at having his attention, the tip of Tyler's tongue sliding nervously along his parted lips.

And that's enough.

Enough to break the hold over him, Caleb's eyes dropping back down to his open but mostly blank notebook, something in his lower belly twisting and fluttering. Consciously fighting back his own body's urge to do the same, keeping his tongue from following the path Tyler's had taken as, for a brief moment of insanity, he wonders if the younger boy is tasting him there on his lips.

The thought should sicken him and there _is_ a pang of it, but not nearly enough to satisfy him.

Not after what he'd done, to Tyler, to their youngest, the one they were supposed to protect and look after. They'd had it drilled into their heads from childhood ever since they'd almost lost him playing in the woods because he couldn't keep up and it was hard to separate that now, hard to see the other boy as an equal.

Even if it had been anyone else, though, he would still be sick over that night. He doesn't remember much of it, just the dark and the cold, the pouring rain of his nightmare, watching Chase disappear into the fire over and over, and then the soft, soothing touch and he hadn't been able to keep from reaching out. Wanting to crawl inside that warmth, that light, and never come out.

Nothing of what he had been doing had sank in past the whirring and buzzing of his mind, the frantic need to do whatever he'd had to do to keep that safe feeling, warm feeling, until he'd heard that soft whimper.

Caleb shakes his head, eyes focusing again on the nearly empty page as he tries to stop the memories, the horror he'd felt when he'd realized he was pinning Tyler, _Tyler_ down onto his bed, practically assaulting him. He closes his eyes and swallows down the bile in his throat.

No practically to it, his hands had been gripping the younger boy's wrists, holding him down while he'd attacked his mouth, leaving it swollen and red from his teeth, the hard pressure of his mouth. He'd seen the dark ring of bruises around the fragile bones later, though Tyler had tried to hide them in the layers he always wore and had skipped swim practice until they were gone.

_Not admitting even to himself that the shame he'd felt at seeing them had been laced with something more primitive and base. Possessive._

Clenches his fingers around the pen in his hand, drawing in a slow breath. He can't understand how he's come to this. He's always been the responsible one, the 'golden boy'.

He killed a boy. A boy he knew, had liked, even admired, felt a kinship to. Yeah, Chase'd been threatening his life, his brothers' lives, Sarah's, but the guy was fucked up in the head, had problems that could have easily been theirs if it hadn't been for pure luck of the draw.

And not even two nights later, he'd been pinning Tyler down, kissing him brutally, taking from him what he had no right to take, using him. When he _knew_ how weak and powerless that made you feel, going way further than Chase had when he'd held him down on the bathroom floor. And unlike Chase, he had no excuse.

Knows that the guilt inside him should also extend towards Sarah but it doesn't and he isn't sure why that is, either. Only that it hadn't been about sex, desire, it had been about comfort and _taking_ it even when it had been offered anyway.

They need to talk about it, he knows that, and yet they avoid any mention of that night, avoid being alone, avoid each other except when they have no choice. Not that he can blame Tyler but the younger boy never seems pissed off at him or any more scared of him than he'd ever been.

He wants, _needs_ to explain, if not apologize again, but then again.. he doesn't.

Doesn't understand fully what happened, himself, doesn't know how he could explain it to Tyler. Has no excuse for what had happened.

More than anything, he wishes he could forget, like the other boy had suggested, selfishly wishes Tyler could forget it, too, but he knows he hasn't.

He feels those eyes on him, a silent questioning there that he doesn't quite understand.

So many questions, so many thoughts. They speak still, of course, but not about that, not about what they can't stop thinking about. Not about what's important.

_That_ is shrouded in glances, in the avoidance of those glances. In silence.

But the silence won't cover it forever.


	4. Secrets

"Ty, knock it off, man. You're shakin' the whole bench."

Tearing himself out of his mind, he stills his bouncing knee so quickly that he almost unbalances, halfheartedly shoving Reid and rolling his eyes. He tries hard to keep the flush he can feel spreading throughout his body from his face, absolutely not looking across the table at the others.

The blonde gives him a 'What?' look as the conversations around them pick back up but Tyler just shakes his head and picks at the unappetizing food on his plate. Reid shrugs and goes back to trying out lame pick-up lines on Kate while Pogue looks on amused and Tyler tunes out both his voice and the sound of her laughter.

Not that he wants to listen to Caleb and Sarah but for some reason the older boy's voice is harder to ignore now.

They'd all opted to eat out in the courtyard since it was a pretty mild day for early November but that meant smaller tables and Tyler'd ended up right across from them. He'd been pretty good about avoiding Caleb and had managed to avoid them together totally until now and it was more unsettling than he'd thought it would be.

Caleb is murmuring something in her ear and she laughs and something inside him twists sickly, his knee starting to bounce again under the table with nerves. Reid shoots him a look and he sighs, rubbing his suddenly sweaty palms over his thighs.

Part of him misses the days when there was a more clean-cut division between the four of them, the past few weeks tying them even closer together, tighter knit, because at least then, they'd spent little time all together. For the moment, though, the animosity between Reid and Caleb seems to be on the back burner and they did pretty much everything as a group.

It makes evading Caleb without rousing suspicion that much harder.

He can only take it a few more minutes before he grabs his bag and stands, Reid glancing his way in surprise. "Going on in, I have a couple questions from last night's homework," he hedges quietly, scrambling for a believable excuse. He's relieved when the other boy just nods but then his eyes catch Caleb's and it's all he can do to look unaffected.

It doesn't feel right to hide such a big thing from Reid but there is no way he can talk about it. Even if he did think the blonde could keep it quiet, which he really.. yeah, it wasn't likely. But even if he did.. he wouldn't even know where to begin.

Doesn't understand what's happening, why just the sight of him with Sarah is enough to make his throat tight. Nothing happened, not _really_, but it isn't really even guilt he can feel choking him. Not quite.

And that makes him the most confused of all.

Reid's nowhere to be found after his last class and the last thing he feels like doing is getting stuck talking to Caleb and Pogue, so he slips by them and heads towards his room. There's the usual mad rush of students and he hears his name a couple times but he keeps his eyes lowered, walking on ahead, feeling safely invisible in the after-school crush.

He's just feeling even more unsociable than usual, wanting nothing but the peace of their room. More than anything else, he wants things to go back the way they used to be but it was looking more and more impossible with every day that passed, the unspoken words hovering between them until any moment of silence feels stifling and awkward.

There's a sliver of light under the closed door and he doesn't know whether to be relieved that Reid was there to keep him from sinking into his increasingly complicated thoughts or to feel upset that he won't get the peace and quiet he'd been counting on. Shrugging in resignation, he opens the door and lets his bag slip from his shoulder, tossing it into the corner and closing the door.

The tingling along the back of his neck is his first warning and he turns quickly, almost toppling onto his ass as he blinks in shock. Caleb's sitting on his bed, elbows on his thighs with his hands clasped loosely between his knees, and there's just so many things wrong with that that he doesn't know where to start.

"You.. how?" he starts, before realizing that the older boy must have used to get there before him, feeling a twinge of guilt at that. He'd definitely been avoiding him but he hadn't realized just how important cornering him was to Caleb. Important enough for him to resort to something he did very sparingly, even more so now after that mess with Chase.

Still, he'd known he couldn't hide from him forever.

"Reid's out. Some freshman walked by while he was joking with Kate at lunch and thought he was asking her out." The expression on Caleb's face leaves little doubt what he thinks of the girl's intelligence but then, Reid would be the first to say he didn't date them for their minds.

Tyler gives him his best, 'And?' look, not knowing exactly where this was going, and Caleb blows out a frustrated breath.

"We need to talk."

He swallows. That's what he'd been afraid of.

"You're breaking up with me already?" he tries to joke, then winces at the unamused look on Caleb's face. "Sorry, bad joke. But there's nothing to talk about, Caleb, nothing happened."

His voice is surprisingly even and logical considering that he's trembling with nerves inside at being alone with the older boy for the first time since that night.

"Look.." Caleb pauses, raking both hands through his hair. He stands after another moment of silence and acts like he's going to take a step towards him, but then thinks better of it.

Tyler's not sure how to feel about that.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I don't.." he slides a hand over his hair again, messing it up even more. Not that Tyler is paying any particular attention to his hair or remembering how it felt under his own hands.

He blinks when Caleb continues, forcibly tearing his mind away from those fucked up thoughts.

"I don't know how it happened, or _what_ happened. But you don't have to avoid me, Tyler. It's not going to happen again. I am so sorry," he said quietly, firmly stressing the last few words, dark eyes searching Tyler's own.

It's supposed to be a reassurance, he knows that. Caleb seems to think he's afraid of being molested or something equally messed up and that really couldn't be further from the truth. He opens his mouth to say just that but there's this spark of _pain_ inside from those words and he just looks at him helplessly, head spinning.

It's suddenly so clear.

All the fumbling emotions inside of him, the conflicting thoughts, the flutter of his pulse, tightness of his throat when he was around him. The sick feeling around Sarah. It wasn't guilt, wasn't fear or embarrassment.

And those words aren't reassuring. Not at all.

He doesn't want to hear that Caleb was sorry it happened, he didn't want his apologies. He doesn't want to hear that it would never happen again.

Caleb's eyes widen when he takes a step towards him, then another, bracing as if he expects him to hit him or something and Tyler can feel his pulse thundering in his ears, a small sane part of him screaming in the back of his mind, asking him what the hell he's doing. He doesn't have a clue.

But his hands are sliding into Caleb's hair and it's just as good as he remembered, soft and thick, cool on his palms. His body pressed into the older boy's as he froze, mouth sliding over Caleb's with a hunger he never realized he had. Especially not for him.

Holding him still, afraid he would pull away, but he seems too stunned to do anything about it.

This time, he's kissing Caleb.

And since it might very well be the last time he gets to do that, he pours everything he has into it, fingers tightening in his dark hair, tongue teasing along his lips until he can slide it past them, moaning soft in his throat at the hot, velvet brush of Caleb's tongue against his own. That sound jars the older boy out of it, just like it had before, and there are hands gripping his shoulders, not pushing him away but also keeping him from following as Caleb steps back.

"I'm not sorry," he tells him, voice husky and low, honest, even as his face flushes hard at what he'd done. Swallowing hard at the dazed and lost look on Caleb's face, he presses his fingertips to his tingling lips and backs up, needing to get out before the other boy says anything to ruin it. Caleb's hands drop, releasing him easily, and something inside aches at that.

"I never was," he whispers.

With those last words echoing between them, he fumbles behind him for the door handle and opens it, escaping out into the hall with more dignity than he'd thought he'd manage.

Until he realizes that he just escaped from his own room and now has nowhere else to go.


	5. Blankets

Everything was different under blankets. The lights were dimmed and they shimmered with ghostly colors that slid along sheets, skin, the sounds outside them were quieted, sounds within them echoed softly, the air was warmer, closer.

He'd spent a great deal of his childhood playing underneath them, forts of them, as he and the others crawled along on their bellies with their soldiers, creating battles, worlds, and it had all felt so real, so tangible, there. Under the blankets.

As if it created this soft, dark, magical place where wishes came true.

They'd also blocked out everything bad, hid him from the world, anything that he didn't want to find him. Protected him from monsters, things that went bump in the night, from the dark itself. From the devils in his own mind.

He remembers quite a few times that he'd pulled them over his head when he was scared and pretended one of the other three boys were there in the bed, too, to help him sleep.

He isn't sure which he's using them for right now, fantasy or nightmare. Granting wishes or blocking out reality.

He's definitely using them to muffle sound, though.

First just the hushed sound of skin on skin as he slipped his hand down his boxers, wrapping it around his half-hard cock and tugging slowly, then the rough, telling hitches of his breath as he shifted his face down against his shoulder, smothering the sounds into the thick blankets, his hand moving faster, a little firmer.

Gasping and shuddering, teeth biting deep into his lip to bite back the whimpered moan as he comes silently in his fist, a hot sheen of sweat on his skin, slender body trembling all over. His muscles aching from trying to hold everything in.

It's not like he thinks Reid will mind, hell, they're two seventeen year old boys sharing a bedroom, it's not like it hasn't happened before. A lot. But before..

Before, it wasn't Caleb's husky voice in his head, wasn't Caleb's strong, rough hands he was imagining with every touch, stroke.

It just feels wrong, somehow, to be thinking of him that way, but he can't stop it. He can't get their kisses out of his mind, the way he tastes out of his mouth, the soft, can't forget the warm feel of his lips on his own. He can't stop thinking of the desperation, the dominating way Caleb had pinned him to the bed that first night, shudders running hot down his spine at the memory of the bruises he'd left.

He doesn't _want _to think about that, remember that night, because it hadn't been him that Caleb needed so badly. He doesn't know who or what the older boy had needed with such desperation but he remembered the shock in his eyes when he'd realized what they were doing.

It wasn't him.

But fuck, more and more every day Tyler wants it to be.


	6. Linger

Something blurs through his line of vision and Caleb blinks, drawn out of his thoughts by the hand waving in front of his face. Pogue arches a brow at him and grins, shaking his head.

"Damn, dude, you were a thousand miles away, there." He waggles his eyebrows up and down teasingly, smile turning sly and naughty. "Thinkin' bout a certain petite blonde?"

Feeling his skin tingle with the beginnings of a telling flush, Caleb coughs out a laugh and shakes his head, rubbing his palm down over his face. "You have no idea," is all he says, before going back to their conversation in hopes that the other boy would drop it. Somehow, he doubts that Pogue wanted to hear that it was Tyler that was making him so damned distracted, not Sarah.

She played a big part in his current train of thought but not in the way his brother thought.

He hadn't really felt guilty not telling her about kissing Tyler, that first kiss, because it had been more an accident that anything else. Neither one of them had meant for it to happen, had planned for it to happen. It just had. He'd been asleep, for the most part, and Tyler definitely hadn't been to blame.

He'd felt guilty that it had happened but more for Tyler's sake than anything else.

Yesterday, though, he didn't know what to call that. He'd been too surprised to stop him, too shocked to really kiss him back, so he wasn't sure if that was considered cheating or not. It hadn't been intentional on _his_ part but.. Tyler's words still haunted him, tumbling around in his head non-stop, making him wonder just what he'd meant by that.

He half wondered if it wasn't Tyler's overblown way of making him not feel so guilty about that night. A 'there, we're even' kind of thing.

But there had been so much.. hunger in that kiss; even without him responding, he'd felt the heat, the need in it. But Tyler didn't _want_ him, did he? He'd never shown any sign of it before.

Which led him back to the thought that it was still his fault this was happening because without him kissing Tyler that night, he was positive that it never would have entered the younger boy's mind. Hell, if he'd thought of Tyler wanting any of them, he would have thought it would have been Reid.

He hadn't intended to corner him again, not after last time. But he hadn't been able to stop thinking about it, wondering about it. It was an ache he just couldn't stop pressing, poking.

He'd caught Tyler's arm after class, motioning to the other guys to go on. Reid had almost said something but Tyler had waved him on with a roll of his eyes, keeping the unaffected front until Caleb had pulled him into one of the empty, dim classrooms.

There had been words, he was sure of it, something along the lines of, 'We have to talk about this,' and 'We really don't,' and he knew he'd planned out more words than that but somehow..

Tyler had looked at him and though there wasn't a lot of light in the room, there was enough to see the expression in them, the softness there, and he had slid his palm over the younger boy's hair, not knowing what to say. The feathersoft brush of hair against his palm had turned to soft, warm skin as Tyler swallowed at the unexpected touch, leaning into it, causing his hand to slide down and cup his cheek. Touch lingering, the moment as slow, drawn out as warm honey.

He isn't sure who moved first but his mouth is on Tyler's again and fuck him but it just feels _right_ even though everything in his head is saying it's wrong, so wrong.

It isn't desperate, isn't hungry, not this time. It's slow and soft, deliberate, every brush of lips, every unhurried slide of tongue. Tyler's breath sighs out soft and wondering into his mouth, the slighter boy leaning into him, hands settling lightly on his shoulders. Caleb moans, his hand still cradling the younger boy's cheek, his other sliding into the sleek black hair to cup the back of his head.

The feel of his mouth, taste of him, so new and addictive, though the smell and solidness of his body is something as familiar to him as his own and it sends him reeling. Should feel stranger, to be kissing someone he'd known his entire life but they just fit in ways he didn't understand, didn't expect. Easing some of the ever-present turmoil in his mind that had been there for the past few months, calming the ache in his chest.

Tyler giving him a peace he hadn't realized he needed.

"Caleb?" the younger boy whispers against his mouth, tone confused, questioning, just as lost as he feels, and he sucks in a slow breath, lips catching softly along Tyler's, lingering there against them for another stretched out moment before lifting his head.

"We can't keep doing this." A soft laugh comes from his throat, the sound rough, not amused. "Whatever the hell _this_ is."

Tyler nods slowly, glancing down, away, and licking over his lips, and it's all Caleb can do to not dip his head down again, catch that soft mouth and forget everything again.

"I'm dating Sarah. This isn't fair to her," he tells him, taking a step back and raking a hand through his hair. Tyler looks up again, eyes calm and soft, so, so blue.

"I kind of think you're the one who drug me into an empty classroom, Caleb," he says quietly, grabbing his bag from the floor where it had slipped to sometime during the last few minutes.

Caleb shoves his hands into his pockets and watches, eyes staying on that slim back until the door closes behind Tyler, because really, there's nothing he can say to that.


End file.
